Page 61 of The Warlock's Kiss

In his mind’s eye, Merrick saw the other werewolves advancing, their forms depicted in the flickering crimson of their mana songs.

The female wolf shattered, the pieces breaking smaller and smaller until nothing of her body remained. The magic snuffed out, and the glass-like spears dissipated. The alpha howled in rage and grief, a sound that pierced Merrick but could not give him pause; he’d offered them a chance to resolve this situation in a different way. This wastheirchoice.

Merrick clenched his jaw and squeezed down on his connection with the ley line, struggling to stifle some of that dangerous flow. It was only as he spun to face the remaining werewolves that he felt what he’d originally sought—the fifth intruder, who had just entered the range of Merrick’s magical senses.

Another wolf, at the north end of the manor—the same side as Merrick’s bedroom.

Fear reintroduced itself to Merrick, cold and slithering through his insides, but it wasn’t fear of the wolves or for his own safety—this was fear for Adalynn, for Danny. For the only precious things Merrick had to lose.

All three of the wolves in front of him attacked.

Merrick folded himself in magic and twisted his mana song, phasing his physical body into a different state. For an instant, he was only energy, was only the magic he’d always harbored within himself, and the mana song of the ley line became deafening.

Join me, it sang.Become one with me. Become power.

Slashing claws and gnashing teeth swept through the space his physical body had occupied. He felt them only distantly, as though they were the phantom caresses of ghostly entities. The wolves’ muscular bodies collided. Merrick forced his incorporeal form aside. He flowed through the air effortlessly, but something pulled him farther along than he’d intended, pulled himdown.

One with the power, whispered the ley line.

The notion was tempting. He could be a part of the lifeblood of magic, could flow in its source, could cast aside all his worries, all his bitterness, all his pain. Even now, he could feel his concerns falling away, could feel his form growing lighter and more indistinct even as the ley line’s magnetic draw strengthened.

Adalynn.

Her name jolted through him, and he latched onto it. Merrick couldn’t go—Adalynn needed him, and he needed her.

Merrick cast off the ley line’s call and willed himselfback, rematerializing his physical body a few feet away from the confused wolves. A shudder ran through him from head to toe, and his muscles tensed, each threatening to cramp at once. Piercing pain, as sharp as a knife, lodged itself deep in his skull.

Best not attemptthatagain.

Despite their initial confusion, the wolves spun toward him quickly; the brown-furred pair were closest. They lunged together, one to each side of Merrick, and he had no choice but to backpedal frantically to avoid their claws.

With a growl, he thrust another blast outward. The force of it lifted the brown wolves off their feet and high into the air. Before they could fall, he wrapped them both in invisible clouds of magic, halting them in midair, where they hovered in place, slowly spinning—too high up to reach the ground.

Another of Merrick’s wards broke—the ward to the balcony doors leading into his bedroom—accompanied by the sound of shattering glass.

Merrick’s heart seized, and for an instant, he couldn’t even feel his magic anymore. All that remained were his feelings for Adalynn—his love for her, his need to protect her.

The alpha charged in Merrick’s moment of hesitation.

A gunshot boomed in the bedroom and echoed across the night sky.

Huge, black claws sliced through the air an inch from Merrick’s face. He staggered back from the wolf, whose jaws snapped close enough to Merrick’s throat for him to feel spittle splatter his skin. He’d only barely managed to keep the other two wolves aloft in his sudden fear; his concentration was still too jarred to mount any meaningful defense now.

The sound of Adalynn’s terrified scream—“Merrick!”—from inside the bedroom sharpened his focus instantly.

A fresh surge of power flowed through Merrick—not the ley line’s power, but his own, drawn from somewhere deep inside that he’d been unaware of before that moment. The alpha’s claws raked across Merrick’s chest, but he didn’t feel any pain, not even distantly. He was beyond that now.

Crackling blue energy coalesced around Merrick’s hands and spread upward to sheathe his arms, intensifying the light he emitted. He lashed out with his left hand, catching the alpha’s extended arm at the elbow. The magic flared, shifting closer to white than blue, and Merrick’s fingers sank into the wolf’s suddenly sizzling flesh. The alpha growled in pain. Before the wolf could retaliate, Merrick thrust his other hand forward, unleashing a raw burst of concentrated magic that flowed out in a wide, short cone.

When the light faded, the upper left half of the alpha’s torso was gone—including most of his head. The body fell aside, landing heavily on the charred ground. Merrick poured more power into the corpse, blasting it to dust within a few seconds. He couldn’t risk it getting back up again.

Need to get to her…

He glanced up at the remaining wolves, who were hovering ten feet off the ground. The threat to Adalynn was more immediate; these two weren’t worth the time or energy it would take to dispatch them right now—but he couldn’t risk losing hold of the magic keeping them aloft.

Merrick focused on the mana song of the dirt; it was a simple thing to alter it and make the ground intangible, no more solid than a ghost, as malleable as water. He released the magic holding the brown wolves in the same instant.

They dropped into the ground; Merrick returned the dirt to its solid state when only their heads were still above ground level. He willed the dirt to pack tight, as solid as stone, creating a rock-like prison around the wolves as he ran toward the house.

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